WASHINGTON, March 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The administration of US President
Donald Trump has asked the Department of Defense to prepare to house up to
5,000 unaccompanied migrant children amid what it calls a mounting “crisis”
at the US-Mexico border, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “requested DoD support to
identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DoD
installations, if needed, through September 30, 2019,” said Pentagon
spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis.
“DoD will work with the military services to identify potential locations
for such support, and will work with HHS to assess any DoD facilities or
suitable DoD land for potential use to provide temporary shelter for
unaccompanied alien children,” he said.
The request for beds is preventative — they will not definitely be used.
But it comes amid a surge in the number of families and unaccompanied
children crossing the US border from Mexico illegally, most of them fleeing
poverty and violence in Central America. Most request asylum.
According to the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), the number of
minors apprehended after entering the country illegally without family in
February hit 6,825, up from 5,119 in January and 4,968 in October.
CBP hands the children over to HHS’s Administration for Children and
Families, which seeks to place them with relatives or other families in the
United States while their requests to remain in the country are processed,
which can take two years.
The Administration for Children and Families said Thursday that they
currently have about 11,500 such children in custody.
The figure changes daily, they said, because of new referrals from Homeland
Security and releases of children to sponsors.
Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Tuesday that
illegal immigration in February surged to the highest level in years, with
76,000 people stopped or apprehended, and was straining government
facilities.
“We are currently facing a humanitarian and national security crisis along
our southwest border,” he said.
“The vast increases in families and children coming across our border, in
larger groups and in more remote areas, presents a unique challenge to our
operations and facilities, and those of our partners.”
On Wednesday Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said they were
expecting the numbers to grow in the coming months.
Nielsen though said in many cases the children were being used as “pawns”
to get into our country, and even “recycled” by smuggling rings to help
multiple groups cross the border and get a foothold on US soil.
She said she sympathized with the migrants but insisted that, as Trump
formally declared last month, “It is an emergency.”